Proposed funding cuts to adult education programs could decrease access to GED diploma courses and test-taking opportunities next school year, officials warn.

Hawaii’s 10 state-funded adult community schools are the only authorized examiners of GED diploma testing in the islands. Securing approval to provide GED diploma testing takes about a year.

Yoon Ok Won, GED diploma counselor at McKinley Community School, said the bulk of students he sees are 16 to 24 years old and have had trouble with mainstream schooling. Getting a diploma could mean a better job or fulfilling a dream of going to college.

"The need is there. We know it’s there," Won said.

More than 9,000 people in the islands attended courses at community schools in the 2010-11 school year. That number includes about 1,500 16- to 18-year-olds who had formally opted out of traditional public schools. Many were seeking GED diplomas.

Dale Asami, acting director of the Department of Education’s student support branch, said while the state is working to ensure GED diploma testing and courses remain robust, the DOE will have to operate within its means and reduce offerings if the budget is cut.

He said making sure school-age teenagers get access to GED diploma testing is the department’s priority.

"It might be much more limited," Asami said. "We’re still in the process of determining how we’re going to maintain that access. It comes down to funding."

There is no money for adult education next school year in the Department of Education’s current budget because officials shifted the funds to K-12 programs. The governor has asked the Legislature for $2.5 million to keep adult schools afloat in the 2012-13 school year, which is half of what the schools had been receiving.

State Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said it’s too early to say how much funding adult schools will get this session. But she said there are some big questions about spending on adult education, including whether the state needs to spend so much of its adult school budget on administration. (Community schools each have their own principal.)

Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) added the DOE also needs to figure out if some classes provided by community schools could be offered by other entities.

Adult schools are coming up with plans to tackle the expected funding reduction and say the prevailing scenario being considered would reduce the number of adult schools to four, turning the rest into "satellite campuses" with limited program offerings.

That might mean fewer GED diploma testing dates and prep courses, a significant concern given the number of school-age youth who take the test. Of the 1,957 people who took the test in 2010, half were from 16 to 18, according to the American Council on Education.

With 10 adult schools, Hawaii already has fewer GED diploma testing sites than states of comparable size. Maine, for example, has 16 testing sites, the council reports. New Hampshire has 19.

GED diplomas are nationally standardized and have long been considered a vital alternative to traditional high school diplomas.

John Vannatta, principal of the Waipahu adult school, said his campus partners with a host of organizations to help students earn their GED diploma. The prospect of decreased offerings and testing dates has many worried about students falling through the cracks.

"I think we have to have something," Vannatta said. "It would be devastating if we didn’t. But what that looks like is still up in the air."

Rick Campbell, director of the Hawaii National Guard’s Youth Challenge Academy, said the big draw for his program is that youth earn a GED diploma. By passing the GED diploma test, students are also eligible to get a traditional high school diploma if they have completed at least one semester of high school work in Hawaii.

Campbell said about 200 Youth Challenge students go through Waipahu adult school’s GED diploma programs annually. Another 160 or so go through the GED diploma programs at Hilo adult school.

The funding concerns facing adult schools, he said, are worrisome.

"This is something that will affect us," he said.

State law requires that the DOE "regulate a program of adult education" and provide buildings and equipment for adult education purposes, but does not spell out how robust the program must be.

Course offerings at adult schools include those for the GED diploma, reading and math literacy, English as a second language and substitute teacher literacy.

Students pay a nominal registration fee. Self-sufficient recreational classes charge higher fees.

Among those pursuing GED diploma programs at McKinley Community School is Calina Kimla, 20, who said she wants to get a diploma so she can go to college and get a better job. Kimla didn’t get a high school diploma because her family moved so much when she was young.

Kimla’s friend told her about the GED diploma prep at McKinley.

She said she has heard about the funding issues facing adult community schools and is worried about how they might affect her.

"If they cut it, what are we going to do?" she asked.